Dave was a small business owner. His business, like many, had been hit hard by the recession. Doing business the way it had been done before just wasn’t going to work anymore. He needed to change his business model, how he approached his customers, his processes, etc… And with that, his people needed to change. The problem? Dave has had his business for over 30 years and many of his employees have been with him since the beginning. They were like family. No one represented this better than Wanda.

If you’ve ever had the unfortunate task of managing a saboteur, you know how tricky and dangerous it can be. “But wait, Brandon,” you say. “What do you mean by ‘saboteur?’ I thought saboteurs cut wires, plant bombs and generally mess up stuff?” Yep, you got it. While a corporate saboteur might not plant the kind of bombs that kill people, they set traps nonetheless. And nothing is more dangerous than a sabotaging direct report. If you are their boss, nothing pleases them more than finding ways for things blow up in your face.

About one in five young people in Georgia—ages 16 to 24—is out of work. For people in their early 20s, the numbers are even worse at close to 40 percent.

Workplace and career expert Brandon Smith says part of that is a lack of new jobs. But it’s also because many 16-to-24-year-olds just aren’t motivated.

“The folks in that generation—not all, not every one of them—largely, don’t want to take those entry-level jobs,” said Smith, who teaches about leadership, communication and workplace culture at Emory and Georgia State universities.

I’m sure this will come as no surprise, but I hear a lot of stuff. I guess it comes with the profession. Joys, frustrations, worries, opinions, rants, you name it and I’ve probably heard it. When the person across from me happens to be a manager, the conversation almost always finds its way to the topic of direct reports. Often there is one particular direct report that represents the thorn in the manager’s side. Sometimes, the issue is that the direct report that just can’t seem to “get it.” Other times, the direct report has become the manager’s nemesis.

People who are considered successful don’t just use the work week to get ahead. Many use their weekends, too.

But maybe not in the way you think.

“What these people realize is, life is like a report card: it’s not about doing well in one class, it’s about doing well in all aspects of life,” said Brandon Smith, our resident workplace and career expert.

You already get along. You probably think a lot alike. And you likely have similar interests.

It can be a great idea, if you start off on the right foot, says workplace expert Brandon Smith.

“Then it can be a beautiful thing. But if the hygiene isn’t done well, it is so combustible, and you end up not only with a failed business, but now you’ve lost this valuable friendship,” said Smith, who teaches about workplace culture and communication at Emory and Georgia State universities.

It was my fourth call with Theresa in a week and I was beginning to feel like I was in the movie “Groundhog Day.” Theresa’s direct report, Steven, had been causing her headache after massive headache. “Steven just doesn’t get it,” she blurted. “What’s the latest this time?” I asked. Like each of our recent calls, Theresa would open by rattling off a laundry list of “doesn’t get it” items that would make any manager cry.